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Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs
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Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 March 2024) | Viewed by 12340

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Glenn Morrison

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Associate Professor, School of Philosophy and Theology, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, WA 6959, Australia
Interests: systematic theology; continental thought; pastoral theology; Jewish–Christian relations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Continental philosophy can be highly provocative as much inspiring by awakening and orienting the theological imagination and language of Christian faith towards new horizons. As a provocative means of thought, it challenges, guides and aids every generation of philosophers and theologians to renew their commitment to developing an affectivity of aggiornamento, of keeping up to date with the contemporary world from issues of identity, relevance and clarity to being, existence and consciousness. Continental philosophy looks towards deepening the Christian message and vocation to wrestle with divine revelation, be wounded by the struggle, and find new ways of expression (and remember ones that have walked decades and centuries in tradition yet lost along the way). The development of Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy and ethical metaphysics is but one example in recent times of Christian theologians benefiting from Continental thought and further, offering opportunities for dialogue with Levinas’ Judaism and Talmudic Studies. Continental philosophy can serve further to provide practical and spiritual dimensions to learn to bear the mysteries of the Christian faith.

Christian beliefs form dogmas such as the hypostatic union of Christ’s humanity and unity in his divine personhood, that there are three divine persons in the Holy Trinity, that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, and that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. Dogmas are developed from Christian doctrine concerning for example the person of Jesus the Christ, the sacraments, the Church, social teaching, the last things, salvation and the divine revelation of God and Sacred Scripture. Christian beliefs are central therefore to the identity and mission of Christianity. Continental philosophy acts in a way to develop and animate the intellectual tradition of faith and reason in the search for truth.

The goal of the issue is to offer space to continue the pursuit of truth and finds ways of practical expression to give life to the identity and mission of the Church: “to bring good news to the poor” (Lk 4: 18). In the wisdom and service of love, there remains an invincible little goodness, the nearly invisible leaven of the Kingdom of God (Matt 13:33). Scholarship and dialogue can provide a voice for the Christian Church to continue the pursuit of holiness with joy and gladness, and come to a place where Christian beliefs provide an outpouring of faith, hope and love, that the world has a future in and through the person of Jesus the Christ. This issue will essentially seek to contribute to the development of Continental philosophy on the mysteries of faith, and discover practical expressions in the hope of developing what Pope Francis proclaims in Gaudete et Exsultate (no. 135): “God is eternal newness. He impels us constantly to set out anew, to pass beyond what is familiar, to the fringes and beyond.”

Of particular interest are original research papers that explore the following topics:

  • Crisis of Christian beliefs today;
  • Levinas and Christian theology;
  • Theological ethics;
  • Continental philosophy and practical/pastoral theology;
  • The influence of Jewish European thinkers on the development of Christian theology;
  • Phenomenology, ontology and Christian theology;
  • Continental philosophy and Catholic theology, e.g., Ecclesiology, Mariology, Eschatology and the Paschal mystery;
  • The Intentionality of Love;
  • Continental philosophy and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition;
  • God’s Transcendence;
  • Theology or theologies?
  • Theology in an age of optimism, secularism and indifference;
  • Discovering new expressions of Continental Philosophy for Christian theology;
  • Continental philosophy and the Ecclesiology of Pope Francis;
  • Approaching the limits of phenomenology: What is Christian theology waiting for?

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor (glenn.morrison@nd.edu.au) or to the Religions editorial office (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

References:

Burggraeve, Roger. 2020. To Love Otherwise: Essays in Bible Philosophy and Ethics. Leuven: Peeters.

Grossman, Vasily. 2006. Life and Fate. Trans. Robert Chandler. London: Vintage.

Gregory P. Floyd and Stephanie Rumpza. 2020. The Catholic Reception of Continental Philosophy in North America. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press.

Levinas, Emmanuel. 1998. Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence. Trans. Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

Marion, Jean-Luc. 2002. Prolegomena to Charity. Trans. Stephen Lewis. New York: Fordham University Press.

Morrison, Glenn. 2013. A Theology of Alterity: Levinas, von Balthasar and Trinitarian Praxis. (Pittsburgh PA: Duquesne University Press.

Morrison, Glenn. “Catholic Education in an Age of Unbelief, Optimism and Indifference: The Pastoral Vocation of an Incarnational Educator”. Australasian Catholic Record, Vol.99, no. 3 (August 2022): 284–298.

Morrison, Glenn. "I Love People So Terribly": Approaching affectivity with Levinas, Hillesum, and Christian theology”.Journal of Ecumenical Studies 54, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 539–561.

Oltvai, Kristóf. “Bergoglio among the Phenomenologists: Encounter, Otherness, and Church in Evangelii gaudium and Amoris laetitia”. Open Theology, vol. 4, no. 1 (2018): 316–324.

Pope Francis. Gaudete Et Exsulate, Apostolic Exhortation. Vatican website, 19th March, 2018, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html.

Vanlaere, Linus, Burggraeve, Roger and Lategan, Laetus O.K. 2019. Vulnerable Responsibility: Small Vice for Caregivers. Bloemfontein, South Africa: Sun.

Veling, Terry. 2005. Practical Theology: “On Earth as It Is in Heaven”. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

Dr. Glenn Morrison
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Christianity
  • continental philosophy
  • beliefs
  • doctrine
  • dogma
  • aggiornamento
  • dialogue
  • practice
  • wisdom
  • truth

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 240 KiB  
Article
Church Governance—A Philosophical Approach to a Theological Challenge in an Anglican Context
by Peter D. G. Richards
Religions 2024, 15(4), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040427 - 29 Mar 2024
Viewed by 474
Abstract
Church governance is not often debated within a philosophical or theological sphere. This is perhaps because church governance has been part of tradition since Constantine and the initial Greek philosophical world view of sovereignty and hierarchy. Such a stance has led towards a [...] Read more.
Church governance is not often debated within a philosophical or theological sphere. This is perhaps because church governance has been part of tradition since Constantine and the initial Greek philosophical world view of sovereignty and hierarchy. Such a stance has led towards a managerial mindset that follows and conforms to the world, which plays out within the Anglican polity in the setting of an adversarial parliamentary style synod. This style encourages bounded communities of power that often refute the burgeoning inspirations of the Spirit. In changing the underlying theological basis of such a stance, by invoking the understanding of an undeniable community in the singularity of the Triune God, governance becomes more open. Engaging with, primarily, Agamben but also others from philosophy, a new viewpoint is presented to challenge the manner through which tradition is wielded as the only possibility. In seeing through a differing lens, communities can be conceived as both porous and interconnected, thus allowing the body of Christ to respond with transformative action as opposed to a continuum of conformance with secular legality. In this manner, the bishop’s role may become more centralised towards a Eucharistic one, as opposed to the managerial mindset and role, to enhance the possibilities of God’s love. This then removes the need for a hierarchy driven by a sovereign mindset that tradition bolsters, whilst maintaining loving and authoritative oversight that tradition suggests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
11 pages, 438 KiB  
Article
Qualifying Religious Truth and Ecclesial Unity: The Soteriological Significance of Difference
by Ryan K. McAleer
Religions 2024, 15(3), 346; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030346 - 13 Mar 2024
Viewed by 673
Abstract
The trans-phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas has helped expose the totalising dynamic that has marked much of Western philosophy. The quest for a unity of knowledge in the truth assimilates any hint of otherness into more of the same. Plurality becomes a source of [...] Read more.
The trans-phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas has helped expose the totalising dynamic that has marked much of Western philosophy. The quest for a unity of knowledge in the truth assimilates any hint of otherness into more of the same. Plurality becomes a source of violence and dissent regarded as decay. Levinasian perspectives, however, and recent developments in magisterial teaching in the Roman Catholic Church point to a more ethical approach that can begin to escape the dialectic binary of the same and the other and so help avoid static conceptions of truth and unity. Religious truth and ecclesial unity, in other words, are explored in this paper for their ethical–dialogical quality. Indeed, the asymmetrical priority of dissent within this dialogical approach offers positive soteriological significance for the church rather than seeing dissent as a threat. Such an approach can enable the church to take plurality and diversity seriously in the current context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
11 pages, 247 KiB  
Article
From Philosophy of Religion to Philosophy of Religious Experience: On New Tendencies in French Phenomenology of Religion
by Przemysław Zgórecki
Religions 2024, 15(1), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010120 - 17 Jan 2024
Viewed by 784
Abstract
Contemporary thinking on religion is confronted with the challenge of shifting from a ‘philosophy of religion’ to a ‘philosophy of religious experience’. This challenge, on which the common future of philosophy and theology depends, is not to draw a line between the two, [...] Read more.
Contemporary thinking on religion is confronted with the challenge of shifting from a ‘philosophy of religion’ to a ‘philosophy of religious experience’. This challenge, on which the common future of philosophy and theology depends, is not to draw a line between the two, but rather to cross that very line. Crossing the boundary between philosophy and theology, which is what is being discussed here, means transcending its naive geometric understanding in order to take up the old task of thinking in a new way. This is a challenge to both philosophy and theology because it is an existential, or rather an experiential, task. It is about a specific experience and a specific way of life that emerges from it, which must be described in philosophy and at the same time elaborated in theology. This is perhaps the greatest challenge to religious thought. The most representative recent attempts to meet this challenge will be traced below. As we shall see, the best method for both philosophical and theological description of religious experience seems to be phenomenology. The latter allows a free exploration of this experience, while avoiding the trap of falling into the limitations set by either philosophy or theology unduly separated by the boundaries set by a conventional academic rigor. The problem of this article is the quest of exploring religious experience itself: the possibility of such an undertaking, its method, and its future. The considerations presented beneath will lead us to conclude that religious thought, to survive and develop further, needs a specifically understood conversion: its future lies, namely, in converting to experience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
10 pages, 253 KiB  
Article
Heidegger’s Existential Diagnosis and Bonaventure’s Positive Existential Remedy: Using Hermeneutics to Address the Problem of Anxiety over Intellectual Finitude
by Jonathan Chung-Yan Lo
Religions 2023, 14(11), 1419; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111419 - 13 Nov 2023
Viewed by 827
Abstract
In today’s postcritical environment, the philosophical disciplines have at times acquired a negative reputation for abstraction, relativity and impracticability. While indispensable to the modern university curriculum, the meaning and utility of the philosophical enterprise continues to register ambivalently in modern popular consciousness. In [...] Read more.
In today’s postcritical environment, the philosophical disciplines have at times acquired a negative reputation for abstraction, relativity and impracticability. While indispensable to the modern university curriculum, the meaning and utility of the philosophical enterprise continues to register ambivalently in modern popular consciousness. In this article, I challenge this popular assumption with a case study in philosophical interpretation, by applying the hermeneutics of German existentialist Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) to issues of practical religious life. Within a life-context of anxiety over intellectual finitude and its ensuing projections, I demonstrate how the innovative sapiential reading of Christ by medieval Franciscan theologian Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c. 1217–1274) supplies a productive intervention to ensure a new state-of-mind. This new state-of-mind arising from a new mode of understanding and being-in-the-world, amounts to a transmutation of the Heideggerian hermeneutic mode in the light of biblical truth. Bonaventure’s threefold way of Christological exegesis serves as a requisite framework in which to practically redeploy the Heideggerian way of understanding towards a positive existential end. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
9 pages, 231 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Philosophy and Theology in Inter-War German Catholic Scholarship
by Tracey Rowland
Religions 2023, 14(11), 1403; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111403 - 09 Nov 2023
Viewed by 770
Abstract
This paper provides an introduction to the thought of four German Catholic philosophers of the inter-war era described by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI as the most influential on his generation of seminarians. The focus of the article is on how they understood the [...] Read more.
This paper provides an introduction to the thought of four German Catholic philosophers of the inter-war era described by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI as the most influential on his generation of seminarians. The focus of the article is on how they understood the relationship between theology and philosophy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
16 pages, 310 KiB  
Article
A Spiritual Theology of Integral Human Development: To “Grow in Holiness”
by Glenn Joshua Morrison
Religions 2023, 14(10), 1233; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101233 - 26 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1334
Abstract
The article identifies the nature of integral human development as a Christian imperative and an incarnational life of responsibility for others. To grow in holiness through the truth of the Gospel signifies overcoming the egoism of the self, being generous in responsibility (love [...] Read more.
The article identifies the nature of integral human development as a Christian imperative and an incarnational life of responsibility for others. To grow in holiness through the truth of the Gospel signifies overcoming the egoism of the self, being generous in responsibility (love in truth), and discovering a beatitude of hope to become sons and daughters of God (truth in love). Engaging truth in the light of history, evil, and death, the article proceeds to relate the encounter of the soul with “the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10) to learn from the Spirit a life aimed for the common good. The path to “the depths of God” is one of hope to encounter the vulnerability of the other and oneself, a journey into boldness, newness, and redemption with Christ towards the face of the forsaken and poor. Integral human development, a pathway of peace and healing “to the far and the near” (Isa 57:19), is otherwise than an evasion of love and responsibility. For in the proclamation and witness that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:16) lies the hope to build the earthly city of God and herald an end to war, indifference, and hatred of others. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
15 pages, 279 KiB  
Article
Von Hildebrand on the Roots of Moral Evil
by Martin Cajthaml
Religions 2023, 14(7), 843; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070843 - 27 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1167
Abstract
In this article, I sketch, both in broad outlines and in selected details, the new, richer picture of von Hildebrand’s account of moral evil as it emerges from my discovery of extensive materials in von Hildebrand´s Nachlass at the Bavarian State Library in [...] Read more.
In this article, I sketch, both in broad outlines and in selected details, the new, richer picture of von Hildebrand’s account of moral evil as it emerges from my discovery of extensive materials in von Hildebrand´s Nachlass at the Bavarian State Library in Munich dealing with the “roots of moral evil”. These manuscripts and typescripts, the critical edition of which will be published at the same time as this article or shortly thereafter, show that von Hildebrand´s account of moral evil is much richer, more nuanced, and complex than the one we can glean from the final section of Ethics, his magnum opus in moral philosophy. In this article, I also aim to situate von Hildebrand´s analysis of the roots of moral evil in the context of both Christian religious thought and the Western philosophical tradition. Von Hildebrand was, to be sure, an heir to both of these traditions, despite the thrust of his phenomenological method to “bracket” all extant theories and turn “back to the things themselves”. The mind-boggling feature of the tension between von Hildebrand´s existential rootedness in the Catholic tradition and his methodological distance to it, including the Aristotelian–Thomist philosophy, is the following: On one hand, he claims that the two ultimate roots of moral evil are pride and concupiscence, which sounds perfectly traditionally Christian. On the other hand, however, he strips these concepts of most of their traditional connotations and endows them with the meaning they acquire in the context of his phenomenological analyses. The intriguing result of this approach is the transformation of religious or moral theological concepts of pride and concupiscence into descriptive phenomenological categories which encompass an almost inexhaustible wealth of various subspecies and subordinate forms of moral evil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
12 pages, 248 KiB  
Article
BLESSING: Exploring the Religious, Anthropological and Ethical Meaning
by Roger Burggraeve
Religions 2023, 14(5), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050599 - 04 May 2023
Viewed by 1962
Abstract
The point of departure for this essay, which reflects on the religious, anthropological and ethical meaning of the act of blessing, is the multifaceted tradition of all kinds of blessings in the Catholic faith community, both in a sacramental and non-sacramental context. To [...] Read more.
The point of departure for this essay, which reflects on the religious, anthropological and ethical meaning of the act of blessing, is the multifaceted tradition of all kinds of blessings in the Catholic faith community, both in a sacramental and non-sacramental context. To properly understand the act of blessing, it is necessary to outline the existential and religious background of the blessing as an experience and condition. Starting from the general biblical background of blessing as an earthly reality, attention is paid to the transition from the implicit to the explicit religious meaning of blessing as a gift. Subsequently, the act of blessing in its bi-dimensional modality, namely as word and gesture, receives the necessary attention. This is accomplished by a shift from a theological to a philosophical understanding; this is anthropological and existential understanding of blessing. First, the specificity of the blessing as a language event is examined. Then, the bodily and possibly material form of the act of blessing is explored phenomenologically. Thus, it will appear that what is specifically Christian also has universal significance, is literally “catholic”, that is, “kat’ holon”, meaningful “for everyone”. Last but not least, consideration is given to the “power” of the act of blessing, both its “founding” power and the risk of magical derailment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
12 pages, 286 KiB  
Article
Value Architecture and Salvation Technology—The Sacred in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
by Alejandro Martín Navarro
Religions 2023, 14(5), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050567 - 23 Apr 2023
Viewed by 996
Abstract
This article approaches the religious phenomenon from a perspective that combines the anthropology of the sacred and the science of religions and from which religion can be interpreted as an “architecture of value”, that is, as a technique for constructing values and, at [...] Read more.
This article approaches the religious phenomenon from a perspective that combines the anthropology of the sacred and the science of religions and from which religion can be interpreted as an “architecture of value”, that is, as a technique for constructing values and, at the same time, as a “technology of salvation”, that is, as a mechanism for individual and group healing. On this theoretical basis, certain aspects of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra are analysed not as mere rhetorical or polemical devices but as the backbone of a work of a religious nature. The result is a religious interpretation of Nietzsche’s great work and, at the same time, a reflection on religious life itself and the scope of post-metaphysical religiosity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
12 pages, 270 KiB  
Article
Faith in the Nominalistic Age? The Possible Theological Contribution of Hermeneutics
by Jean Grondin
Religions 2023, 14(2), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020220 - 07 Feb 2023
Viewed by 2028
Abstract
This paper inquires about the defensibility of spiritual faith in this Nominalistic age, i.e., an age when all reality is reduced to scientifically ascertainable matter and all spiritual realities are deemed to be irreal. This Nominalistic worldview was developed in the late Middle [...] Read more.
This paper inquires about the defensibility of spiritual faith in this Nominalistic age, i.e., an age when all reality is reduced to scientifically ascertainable matter and all spiritual realities are deemed to be irreal. This Nominalistic worldview was developed in the late Middle Ages and became one of the major presuppositions of Modernity. It has made it ever more difficult to defend the legitimacy of faith and its objects. It also played an important, albeit seldom recognized, role in the emergence of Hermeneutical thought in the 20th Century. In his strong, if also seldom carefully studied, interpretation of Heidegger’s philosophy, Gadamer saw in the Nominalism of Modernity one of the main challenges to which Heidegger’s thinking wished to respond: the hegemony of the Nominalistic understanding of being would have led to the Nihilism of our technological Age and made the experience of the Divine unthinkable. After recalling the outlines of this interpretation and of the meaning of Nominalism itself, this paper argues that this Nominalism was also one of the main challenges Gadamer wanted to overcome with his Hermeneutics. It discusses how Hermeneutics strives to overcome this Nominalism by calling into question the monopoly of scientific truth (an effort summed up in the title “Truth and Method”) and through its renewed understanding of language as the presentation of Being itself, which goes hand in hand with the rediscovery of the Platonic metaphysics of the Beautiful. Hermeneutics thus shows how something like faith is defensible and thus makes an important theological and metaphysical contribution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
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